The Doom That Came To Arendelle
by SixGoldenCoins
Summary: Something awakens in the ocean depths, and it is heading for Arendelle. The final sequel to "The Shadow Over Weselton" and "The Horror In The Southern Isles".
1. Chapter 1

The quiet sound of chewing could be heard as Sven grazed on a patch of grass.

"You can see so much from up here."

Princess Anna of Arendelle sat in the sled beside her boyfriend Kristoff Bjorgman, her hand grasped in his. She was right about the sight: up in the foothills of the North Mountain, one was able to view the entire main town of Arendelle. The castle stood tall and proud amongst the surrounding landscape, a light glowing in a window of one of the towers where Anna's sister was no doubt hard at work with some important task.

Anna leaned closer to Kristoff, resting her head on his shoulder.

"It's so romantic," she whispered.

In the shadows cast by the setting sun, and the nearby trees, Anna could not see the ice harvester's blushing face, reddening with anticipation.

Kristoff cleared his throat and stole a quick glance at Marshmallow, the burly snowman who was standing guard over them, then reached into his left pocket.

"Anna..."

"Mmm?" she responded simply, her eyes closed.

"We've been seeing each other for some time now, and..."

His hand closed around the small box. As he was about to withdraw it, Sven perked his head up, sniffing the air. He growled, looking towards the cluster of trees to their right.

_Crash_.

Wood splintered and branches snapped as trees were thrown up out of the forest, landing here and there. Pieces of a sapling fell directly in front of the group, its trunk somehow cut clean through.

And then it grew quiet. Whatever was in the forest ripping through trees had become silent. Kristoff exchanged worried looks with Anna.

"_I check. Go,_" said Marshmallow in his booming voice. He flexed, growing icy teeth and claws. Dozens of other icicles sprouted out around his body as he headed for the thicket of trees.

"Are you sure..."

"_Go_."

Kristoff barely even touched the reins before Sven started to sprint down the hill, pulling the sled with him. The reindeer was all too happy to get out of there.

"Are you sure we should have left him?" asked Kristoff.

"Don't worry about it. I'm...sure Marshie can handle it..."

Sven only ran faster after they all heard Marshmallow's shrill cry of pain echoing down the mountain.

* * *

><p>"What do you mean, it isn't there?"<p>

Queen Elsa could not believe what she had just heard.

"_It isn't there_," her ambassador insisted. "We sailed right over where it should have been. We even stopped and sent a few men down in a diving bell. Lowered them down almost 500 feet. And when we got them back out, they still hadn't seen anything. Just water in all directions."

"Nothing else, at all?"

"Nothing. Whatever happened to Weselton, it's completely gone now. And I don't think it's ever coming back."

Elsa took a deep breath. "Thank you for the report, Demetri. You are dismissed."

"Your Majesty."

Demetri the ambassador gave a short bow and left.

After he was gone, the queen loosened the top button of her dress's collar and sat back in her chair.

"Unbelievable," she quietly groaned. She knew what she had to do next, but she let the responsibility slide for a moment, instead taking a sip of her tea. The familiar taste of lemon passed by her lips, but it provided little comfort to her. Sighing, she set the teacup back on its saucer, then reached for her fountain pen and a nearby piece of paper. Putting the nib to the paper, Elsa started to write.

_To whom it may concern,_

_I am writing this letter in regards to the island duchy of Weselton. It is already widely known that said nation has gone through an extended period without trading, or any type of commerce whatsoever, with its neighboring kingdoms._

_Taking the word of my ambassador in good faith, I have been informed that Weselton, as far as we know, has ceased to exist. It is only natural that one is skeptical at this statement, but anyone is welcome to try to visit Weselton and see for themselves. You will only find ocean waves where it once stood. I myself have attempted written correspondence with the Duke of Weselton, and have received no reply._

_It is possible that the island has sunk, although I cannot imagine what sort of power could possibly perform such a feat. _

_From lack of trade, I am sure that its economy suffered greatly under these conditions. Whether or not this had anything to do with its disappearance is unknown. Speculation aside, this letter has served its purpose. If any head of state wishes to discuss this matter further, I am more than willing to do so._

_Warm regards,_

_Her Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle_

When she was sure the ink was dry, Elsa neatly folded the letter in half. Copies would need to be made and sent to Arendelle's neighboring kingdoms, but that was a task for the royal clerk. After that, Elsa would have the rest of the evening to herself. She reached for the small bell to ring it; her maid Gerda was never far from her.

The ringing of the bell was drowned out by loud knocking at the door.

_Just when I thought I could relax_, the queen thought.

"Elsa!"

She sighed and smiled as she recognized the voice immediately.

"Come in."

Anna quickly stepped through the door, Kristoff following after her. They were both panicked, and looked as though they had ran up the castle's multiple flights of stairs without stopping once to rest.

"I...um...we..."

Anna tried to gasp out her words, but she barely had any breath.

"What is it?"

"We left...we left Marshmallow up on the mountain. He saw something...and went after it, he told us to leave."

"...that's all? He'll be fine, he'll find his way back down soon en-"

"No..." Kristoff quietly interjected. "Something happened to him. On the way down we heard him scream."

The queen looked over to him, puzzled.

"Are you sure you didn't just hear things? There's nothing on that mountain that-"

"We heard something...ripping up the trees," said Anna. "Please. There's no time, we need to go back there."

"...all right, then."

As the three of them headed out, Kristoff touched the little box in his pocket, wistfully.

* * *

><p>"He was right here, then-"<p>

Anna pointed to the line of trees. The sun had now set, and the entire area was pitch dark.

"...he went in there."

"He obviously saw something," Kristoff remarked.

"Elsa...what if he's hurt? Or worse?"

"Well...we won't know unless we look."

With a wave of her hand, Elsa summoned a large ball of winter magic. It illuminated the area, shining a circle of pale blue light around them. The queen manipulated it through the trees, lighting up the darkness and exposing the forest to a small fraction of her power.

About 70 feet in, the trio could make out something large amongst the trees. But they could not see exactly what it was.

"I need to get a closer look."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean...there could be anything in there..."

"I'll be fine, Anna. I'm the one with ice powers, remember?"

The queen started towards the tree line.

"Elsa, wait a second."

Kristoff held out a hand, motioning for Elsa to stop. He walked over to the sled and detached the reins from Sven.

"Come on, buddy."

He led the reindeer over to Elsa.

"Get on," he said, patting Sven's back.

"...what?"

"Don't worry, it's just like riding a horse. Here."

Kristoff leaned over, offering his hand.

"Why not..." Elsa muttered.

She placed a foot onto Kristoff's palm. He raised his arm, boosting her up onto the reindeer.

"Just hold onto the tack when he runs," he said, patting the straps on Sven's sides.

Kristoff looked into the animal's eyes. "If anything bad happens, I want you to get the both of you out of there as fast as you can. Got it?"

Sven nodded, and the two headed into the forest.

Kristoff had been right; it was just like riding a horse. Sven trotted along, carrying the queen on his back, the large shape becoming more detailed as they drew closer.

It was Marshmallow; or rather, a piece of him. All around them, bits of his snowy body were strewn about. Something had ripped him apart. Elsa grimaced, looking across the way at half of Marshmallow's melting face, frozen in an expression of terror.

* * *

><p>Neither sister had spoken in over ten minutes. They just sat in front of the fireplace, looking into the flickering flames, wrapped in blankets and sipping cocoa.<p>

"Elsa..."

"..yeah..."

"...I'm...sorry that Marshmallow ended up like that. It was my fault. We shouldn't have left him, we should have-"

"There was probably nothing you could have done, Anna. He did his job, he protected you."

Anna took a sip of cocoa, thinking to herself.

"Did you try rebuilding him? You _do _have the power of winter, couldn't you have just put him back together?"

"I tried. His body couldn't be repaired, it kept falling apart. Something was keeping him in pieces."

Elsa paused, then slid her mug of cocoa over to Anna.

"You have it. I don't think I'm in the mood for chocolate right now..."

"Elsa..."

"...I know he was just a snowman to everyone else, but to me..."

Elsa shut her eyes, concentrating, forcing herself to not cry.

"...I don't know how I'm going to break the news to Olaf..."

She sighed, and stood up, carrying her blanket under her arm.

"Elsa, wait."

Anna threw her arms around her sister, pulling her in close for a hug.

"Good night."

Anna did not see the single tear that rolled down Elsa's cheek.

"Good night, Anna."

* * *

><p>Elsa opened the door to her room, her body filled with drowsiness. She wanted nothing more than to fall down in her large, soft bed, pull the blankets over herself and go to sleep.<p>

"A lovely night, isn't it? You can see every last star up in the sky."

The man stood with his back to her, looking out the large window of her room, up at the night sky. Upon hearing the man speak, and seeing him silhouetted against the moonlight streaming in through her window, Elsa snapped to attention. She reflexively raised her hands up in front of her in defense, studying the stranger's appearance.

The man was dressed in royal uniform; he had long straight brown hair that went to his mid-back; silvery epaulets adorned either shoulder; a black cape reached from his shoulders to the ground. Stitched into the cape were designs and symbols that Elsa could not identify; they didn't even resemble the Nordic runes that she had studied in her teenage years.

"_Sigma Hydrae_."

The man raised a manicured finger, pointing to a star in the sky.

"353 light-years away in the constellation _Hydra_. That one star will always be special to me. It's quite exhilarating to see it up close, it really is not done justice viewing it from here."

"Who are you?"

The man shifted his hand, indicating a different star.

"_Upsilon Cygni_, of the constellation _Cygnus_. That one star brings nothing but annoyance to me. The Yith would send messages to me incessantly, begging for attention."

He had a strange accent; Elsa could not place its origin. It sounded Arabic, but then, it also sounded English, or French. Or perhaps it was German?

"Tell me who-"

"_Alpha Serpentis_ (or would you call it _Unukalhai_?), in the head of _Serpens_. It's the brightest in the whole constellation, especially visible on such a lovely evening as this."

"Enough," said Elsa. Ice spread across the window, obscuring the man's view outside.

"You have intruded into this castle, this kingdom, uninvited. Identify yourself."

The man slowly turned around, letting his arm fall to his side.

From the front, he looked nothing like any human Elsa had ever seen. His skin was a dark gray, his eyes completely black. His unsettling visage made Elsa's heart beat a little quicker.

"Who I am is of little relevance, your Majesty."

"_Guards_!" the queen called.

"That will not be of much use, I'm afraid. Shout if you must, none of them will hear you."

Elsa tried to keep her voice from sounding fearful. "What do you want?"

"Straight and to the point, I like that. Your father acted in a similar fashion."

"_What. Do. You. Want._"

The man smiled, his mouth curling upward into an unnatural position.

"What I want is unimportant. Rather, what do _you_ want? What is your desire? Power? Friendship? Wealth? No, you already have all three in large quantities. Perhaps..._knowledge_? Knowledge of what is to come?"

Elsa blinked.

"What are you talking about?"

"In spite of the way he kept you hidden away in your room, your father was quite fond of sorcery. He was an avid collector of old tomes, he spent hours poring over them in hopes he could decipher them, much to the disapproval of his wife."

"How do you know all this?"

"Have you thoroughly checked the back of the castle library, your Majesty? Specifically, the back-left shelf?"

"I...no."

"Well then, I suggest you do so. That is, if you want to know what is coming, what is even now stirring in the depths, almost awakened, ready to consume your little world."

Elsa's hands glowed blue, snowflakes beginning to generate from them.

"_Are you threatening me_?"

"Not at all, my dear. I am merely stating a fact. Regardless, I have said my bit. I will take my leave...for now."

She blinked, and he was gone. The queen stood there for a moment, utterly confused at what had just happened. She let the ice around her window dissipate as she sat down on her bed.

Elsa looked out at the stars, each one twinkling back at her. On any other night, it would have been a beautiful sight, but now they seemed sinister, as though each one were hiding a dark secret behind their shining facade.

The queen moved to her nightstand, opened the drawer, and withdrew paper and pencil. She started drawing; any hint of tiredness had vanished from her.

Elsa certainly did not want to go to sleep that night.


	2. Chapter 2

It was a beautiful summer day in Arendelle, a day for the beach.

Irvin and his wife Lilja sat across from each other, a small folding table in front of them, with a chessboard on top. Their young son Finn swam and splashed in the water, not far from them.

"Check," said Lilja, moving her bishop directly across to be in the king's path. Irvin smiled.

"Sharp," he said. "That's why I married you."

"Sweet-talking me won't make me have mercy on you," she playfully snapped back.

Irvin moved his king out of harm's way. Lilja advanced with her knight.

"Check."

Irvin frowned, moving the king back one more space. Lilja moved a pawn forward two spaces.

"Check."

He moved his king to the left, then Lilja shifted the knight up and to the right.

"Check."

Irvin could only move his king forward a space. His wife's small smile broke into a grin as she moved her bishop right for the final time. Irvin groaned, now seeing the obvious trap he had fallen into.

"I could never beat you at this game."

"Checkmate."

Finn splashed excitedly; he picked something up out of the shallow water.

"Mama, Papa, look! I found an octopus!" The boy ran towards his parents, holding a bundle of tentacles in his arms.

"He just walked right up to me!"

They turned to look at their son.

"An octo-_OH MY GOD!"_

* * *

><p>Stacks of books surrounded the two sisters. Even when she was rummaging around, Elsa's standard of orderliness did not leave her. It was something that was beginning to rub off on Anna; her own books were stacked up just like her sister's (perhaps not quite as neatly).<p>

Anna looked at the queen, noting her tired eyes and disheveled hair. She cleared her throat.

"Elsa...did you sleep well last night?"

Elsa stopped. She didn't want to be reminded of the encounter the night before, or the strange visitor.

"I didn't sleep at all. I stayed up all night, for some reason I had the urge to draw..."

"I...really? I never figured you for the artsy type. Well, aside from the ice castle..."

"Neither did I."

Elsa drew out the paper from her pocket, unfolding it and showing it to Anna.

It was a highly-detailed depiction of a group of ancient Egyptians, bowing to their god. With its blank worm-like head, oval-shaped mouth, razor teeth, skeletal torso and arms, sharp taloned hands, and its three spindly legs, it did not resemble any deity from any religion that the two sisters knew of.

"What an ugly thing."

Realizing what she had just said, Anna softened the blow.

"Well I mean you drew it good, you can draw, it's fine, it's just...the thing they're looking at, it doesn't look very, um..._cute_."

Elsa sighed, not even glancing at the drawing before she folded it up and slid it back in her pocket.

"I don't know why I even made it. Something just...came over me."

"Well, it's pretty in-depth. Did that take you all night?"

"It only took me about an hour."

Anna paused. "Oh...well, maybe you should make art more often then. You seem to have the knack for it."

She looked around at their books, and saw a chance to change the subject.

"So...what are we even looking for, anyway?"

"I don't know," Elsa sighed again. She wanted to tell Anna about the odd individual who had appeared, but for some reason, she felt it was best kept to herself.

Before their focus could return to the bookshelf, Kai strode through the library doors, an envelope and folded piece of paper in his hand.

"Your Majesty, I have two messages for you. Some bad news, and some...erm, worse news."

"Can't it wait, Kai?"

"One of these was hand-delievered via boat this morning, my queen. The courier on the ship said it was rather urgent, and that it be delivered to you as soon as possible."

"And...the other message?"

"Delivered down from the beach, just some minutes ago."

The servant held out the two letters.

"Which is the worse news?"

Kai hesitated, searching for the right words. "I'm not sure. That may be up to you to decide..."

He forced a cough. "Is there anything else you require, ma'am?"

"No, that will be all. Thank you, Kai."

Kai bowed and made his exit. Anna looked over Elsa's shoulder as she unfolded the paper.

"What could have happened?"

The sisters each read to themselves from the hastily-written message.

_Your Majesty,_

_Something has happened down at the beach. Please come as quickly as you can._

_-Iver_

"Iver? Isn't he one of your guards? What could he want?"

"I won't know until I head there. But you don't have to bother yourself with this sort of thing, Anna. It's my responsibility."

Anna wanted to protest, but she held her tongue. "Okay..."

"Just stay here and look through the rest of these books. Set aside anything that looks suspicious to you."

"Got it."

Elsa rang the small bell nearby. She didn't even set it down before Kai opened the doors once more.

"Your Majesty?"

"Have the carriage prepared, at once."

* * *

><p>The opened envelope sat on the seat beside Elsa. She had opened it with extreme curiosity after seeing that the wax seal bore the emblem of the Southern Isles. Unlike the short note she read earlier, the handwriting she was seeing now was neat and deliberate.<p>

_To Her Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle,_

_I am paying a visit to your fair kingdom soon. Expect me in a week, give or take a day. I am not taking "no" for an answer in this matter. I have terrifying news to report to you, and I would tell you in this very letter, but I cannot risk this message being intercepted. You will understand once I reveal it to you._

_Regards,_

_His Majesty King Klaus of the Southern Isles_

Elsa had not yet even sent her own letters from the day before. There was no way the king could have received her message about Weselton. But there was no time to ponder it; the carriage came to a stop just before it met the beginning of the sandy shore.

The guard held the door open for his queen, and she stepped out.

"Just wait here in the carriage. I'll be fine." The guard nodded.

Elsa continued down to near the water, where another guard, Iver, waited.

"Your Majesty," he said, greeting her. "I normally would never dream of asking you to come down here personally, I know you're very busy, but-"

He indicated the grisly scene with an open hand.

"...I knew this would be something you would concern yourself with, anyway."

Elsa's mood darkened as she looked around at the sand and rocks, a few cleaners doing their best to remove the stains of blood and bits of viscera from them. It grew even darker when she saw the three bodies covered in sheets; two adults, and beside them, one child.

"...a family?"

"Yes...I was heading down here during my break, when I heard screaming. I ran towards the commotion, but all I find are these three, in pieces, strewn across the beach. I only had time to run back to my post and send my message off to you, then come back here with a clean-up crew. I've been standing guard here since then, making sure no one stumbles on this."

Elsa walked over to the sheets, kneeling down and moving the two aside from the adults to look at their faces. She did not even touch the shroud covering the smallest body.

"Poor bastards," Iver said, shaking his head.

"_Don't call them that_."

He saw Elsa look up at him, a sudden expression of anger on her face.

"_These people had their own hopes and dreams. They probably have family, friends_."

Elsa forced her voice to be steady.

Iver, taken back by his queen's reply, was quick to try and redeem his careless words.

"My deepest apologies, your Majesty. It was...just an expression. I meant no offense."

Elsa breathed, composing herself.

"It's fine...I don't know how the citizens are going to handle the news," she admitted.

"We...could keep this under wraps, couldn't we?"

"No. The people have a right to know what goes on in this kingdom. I'm not keeping secrets from them anymore."

Elsa paused as she remembered the secret of her own powers, kept hidden from everyone for all those years.

"...no more secrets, ever again."

Iver was silent, carefully choosing his next words.

"Then...what will you have us do?"

"Find their families, tell them what happened. Tell them that the funerals will be paid for. And...tell them...I'm sorry I couldn't protect them."

"Of course. I will see to it."

The guard shook his head again, looking down at the sheets.

"What could have done this?"

"I have no idea, Iver. But I'm going to find out."

She stood up.

"This beach is closed to the public. Once everything is cleaned, I want guards here in shifts, every day, every night. No one else is allowed here until we find out what caused this. Do you understand?"

Iver nodded. "Perfectly, ma'am."

Elsa headed up the sandy hill, back to her carriage. Along the way, she was startled when she saw a black tabby cat, perched on top of a rock. Its yellow eyes, with their slit-like pupils, stared down at her.

"_Meow_."

On the way back to the castle, Elsa sensed as though the feline was still looking at her, its eyes boring right through walls of the carriage.

* * *

><p>"Ouch!"<p>

Anna stumbled off the small stepladder, falling and landing face-down on the carpeted floor.

"Anna! Are you okay?"

Having just entered the room, Kristoff saw Anna lying near the bookcase, the stepladder pushed away from her and upside-down.

"I'm fine. Just a bruise, I think...yep," declared Anna, seeing the mark on her left arm.

"_Phew_. You had me worried for a second."

Kristoff looked around the room. "What were you even doing in here, anyway?"

"Just on a little mission for Elsa. She wanted me to look in this bookshelf and find anything 'suspicious'."

"Well that doesn't really help much, does it?"

He scratched his head.

"Anyway, Anna, there was something I've been meaning to ask you since yesterday..."

"What is it?"

He couldn't help but grin.

"Um...well.."

He reached into his pocket, but Anna interrupted him.

"Wait a minute, Kristoff...do you feel that?"

Kristoff stopped. "Feel what?"

"A draft." Anna looked down at her foot, right near the thin space underneath the bookshelf. Her eyes widened in realization.

"Kristoff, help me move this thing."

"Wait, what?"

"You heard me."

She had already moved to the side of the shelf, pushing against it with all her strength.

"Come...on!" she grunted.

Kristoff sighed, and moved to help her. Soon enough, they managed to roughly shove the large shelf aside, revealing a short hallway. Its floor, walls, and ceiling were made up of dull stone bricks, contrasting with the brighter features of the library. At the end of it there was a dusty, wooden door, a large padlock holding it shut.

Anna moved up to the door, holding the padlock up in her hands and looking into its keyhole.

"This looks old...how long has this been here?"

Kristoff shrugged. "Probably just an old broom closet or something."

"No, I don't think so. But I'm curious now. I wonder if the key to this thing is still lying around somewhere..."

The doors leading into the library opened. The two turned around to see the queen of Arendelle entering the room.

"Elsa! Right on time!"

"What did you f-"

She saw the bookshelf that had been pushed aside, and the short hallway that was subsequently exposed; her question had already been answered.

"And I found it all by myself," Anna said proudly.

_"Ahem_."

Anna lightly slapped her boyfriend's shoulder.

"With a bit of help from Kristoff, of course."

Elsa walked past them and up to the door, noticing the padlock over it.

"Well, I'll leave you two to it."

Kristoff began to walk off.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"Oaken's Trading Post. I'm gonna need some extra rope for the ice haul tomorrow. Maybe I'll even go in the sauna for a bit."

"Can you take Olaf with you?" Elsa abruptly asked, not looking up.

"...uh, well yeah, sure."

"Thank you."

"Have fun!" Anna waved after him, but then stopped, realizing she had forgot something.

"Wait. Kristoff, wait!"

She caught him before he could exit.

"What did you want to tell me?"

Kristoff paused, weighing the decision in his mind.

"...some other time. Go help your sister out."

With that, he kissed her on the cheek and stepped out.

Anna rubbed her face gently and sighed, then made her way back over to the queen.

"Why did you want Olaf to go with him?"

"I have a lot on my plate right now, Anna. I...don't want to have to tell Olaf that his only brother is gone. I want him to be happy...at least for a little while longer."

Anna knew it was best not to continue with the topic. She looked at the padlock that Elsa was still examining.

"Maybe we can ask Kai if he knows where the key might b-"

The lock froze solid, then Elsa grabbed hold of it. It snapped off the door with ease.

"...or you could just do that."

Elsa put a hand on the doorknob, but hesitated. She suddenly felt on edge, as though she wasn't supposed to be there.

Slowly she turned the knob. The hinges loudly protested with a loud and steady _creak_ as it opened.

* * *

><p>The sun had set, and the mountain was now dark. The only source of light was coming from within the cabin, dimly illuminating the two small wooden signs that read "WANDERING OAKEN'S TRADING POST AND SAUNA".<p>

Sven stopped just outside the cabin, the sled coming to a halt. Kristoff let go of the reins and hopped out of his seat.

"Think you two will be good out here for a bit?"

The reindeer nodded, Olaf following suit.

"We'll be just fine, Kristoff. I'll pass the time by singing whatever pops into my head."

Kristoff was amused.

"Good. Don't go away, I'll be out soon."

He patted Sven's snout, then went up the few stone steps, pushed on the door handle, and went in.

"Hoo-hoo, special sale on lutefisk today...oh, it is you. 'Vat can I do for you?"

"Just some rope today, Oaken. 15 feet, to be exact."

"Very vell, zat vill be 8."

Oaken held out his hand, demanding payment. Kristoff dug around in his coat and found a small pile of coins. Counting out the right amount, he let them drop into Oaken's hand.

"And what about the sauna? How much?"

Oaken smiled, almost crookedly.

"...zat is free. Vould you like to use it? It is empty at ze moment."

Kristoff smiled back.

"Great, thanks Oaken. I'll just be in for a few minutes."

He walked over to the sauna door and pulled it open, entering.

Kristoff felt like he had just walked into a wall of pure heat, the sudden change in temperature making him begin to sweat almost immediately. He removed his shirt and sat down on a bench, then closed his eyes and relaxed against the wall.

If his eyes were open, he may have seen, through the door's glass window, Oaken move aside a panel in the wall. He would have also seen him pull down a lever, activating the trap door underneath Kristoff's feet.

But by the time he fell down through the hole, it was already too late.

* * *

><p>A tiny vault was the only thing that was in the room.<p>

"Another lock," said Anna.

"Another destroyed lock, you mean."

Elsa froze the entire vault solid, picked it up, and let it fall down to the stone floor. Its brittle frame cracked open, revealing its content: a single book. The sisters peered down at it for a second, before Elsa decided to pick it up.

It was of average size, not very thick, but not very thin either; bound with a rough, leathery cover, it was held tight with a single metal clasp. Elsa unlatched the clasp and flipped quickly through its yellowed pages.

Anna was about to speak up, but Elsa's eyes widened as she dropped the book.

"What is it?"

Elsa did not answer, her gaze instead affixed to where the book lay.

"...Elsa?"

"Anna...thank you for your help today."

Elsa picked up the book once more, but this time she held it away from herself, as if it were a dead animal. Anna watched her exit the small room, and followed her back out to the main library.

"Elsa?" she repeated.

"I'll talk to you later," said the queen. She exited the library, leaving Anna standing there by herself.

* * *

><p>"<em>Sitting outside in the trees, listening to the breeze<em>," Olaf sang quietly. "_My arms are sticks, my nose is orange_...hey Sven, what rhymes with orange?"

The reindeer could only grunt back.

Olaf continued to hum to himself, until Sven's ears perked up. He sniffed the air and growled.

"What is it Sven? Do you smell something?"

A large shadow fell over the area as they both turned around and saw the mass of tendrils and eyes, hovering closely by.

"_That's_ a funny-looking thing. Hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!"

The snowman jumped out of the sled and happily ran towards the thing, his twig arms wide open, offering a hug.

Sven's animal instincts screamed at him to run, but he stood rooted to the spot, frozen with terror.

* * *

><p>Kristoff awoke with a sharp pain in his head. He felt a small trickle of blood coming down from his left temple; the fall had knocked him unconscious.<p>

He squinted, trying to take in his new surroundings. From the light of the single nearby torch on the wall, Kristoff could see that he was in a large, stone room of some kind. He moved to get back to his feet, but found that he could not. His arms were chained to the wall, and his legs were shackled to the floor.

Kristoff looked around to see skeletons, similarly bound, all around him. Bones were strewn about the ground, the torch casting a dim orange light over them.

"You're finally awake."

On his right, a small panel on the dungeon's metal door opened. Peering back at him through the bars was the face of Oaken, wearing a smug expression.

"Oaken, what the hell are you playing at?!"

Oaken's smugness disappeared.

"Don't think about it too hard, you Sami bastard. Just lie back and accept what's coming."

Oaken's voice had changed: he had replaced his foppish accent with his genuine tone, a deep, harsh sound.

Kristoff struggled against his bonds, the chain links clanking against each other.

"The queen and the princess know where I am, you know. If you don't let me go-"

"That's all right. My friend could use the extra nourishment."

Kristoff stopped.

"Your...friend?"

Six tentacles slithered out of the darkness, grabbing hold of a few skulls on the ground and withdrawing them. Then, loud crunching could be heard as the thing (whatever it was) feasted on its small meal.

"That's just the appetizer. You're the main course."

"How long have you been doing this?!"

The shopkeeper chuckled.

"Well since you're going to die, anyway...I've been taking care of it for a little over a year. It's pretty funny...when you called me a crook...you were right."

He burst out laughing, then shut the door panel and walked off.

"_Oaken!_"

Kristoff's angry shout reverberated around the room, but Oaken had already left. He looked back at the thing in the corner, obscured by the darkness, still crunching away on its bony dinner. While it ate, he thought he heard the thing begin to talk.

It was a single phrase, uttered over and over in an inhuman half-whisper.

"_Tekeli-li_._ Tekeli-li_._ Tekeli-li_._ Tekeli-li_._ Tekeli-li_."

Kristoff gulped.


	3. Chapter 3

The flickering candle was the only thing that was lighting up the small study. It was a place that was perfectly suited towards the pursuit of knowledge, whether it was knowledge of the mundane science, or something decidedly darker.

As a teenager, Queen Elsa had spent many hours in this room, completing various scholastic assignments given to her by her parents, in preparation for the day she would become Arendelle's reigning monarch.

None of Elsa's royal studies helped her recognize what she was currently reading. Undoing the single metal clasp again and opening up the dark leathery cover of the book, she read the aged letters on the title page.

_The NECRONOMICON_; _Otherwise being known as the Kitab Al-Azif, or the Book Of Dead Names._

_Written by the Moor: El Hazzared. Translated from Greek into English: John Dee, Doctor. _

_Imprinted at London, 1571._

Elsa skipped ahead to around the middle of the book. The first thing that greeted her was an entire page filled with small, detailed text. Her eyes scanned through the words, picking out sentences here and there.

_Iä! Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold._

The queen could not continue with the paragraph; her head was starting to hurt. She flipped through a few more pages, glimpsing the illustrations of numerous, strange creatures within the pages as she did so.

_The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, They walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen._

She went back a few pages, and happened upon one that was blank, save for two lines of text.

_That is not dead which can eternal lie_

_And with strange aeons even death may die_

The dull pain that had started in Elsa's head was now working its way down her neck and into her arms. With effort, she turned to one last page.

_SUMMON YOG-SOTHOTH_

A wall of text adorned the thin paper, accompanied by a weird, complicated system of curved lines and angles. Elsa shut the book in disgust when she saw the grim instructions, just as someone knocked at the door.

"...yes?" Elsa called, rubbing her forehead. The pain was already beginning to fade.

Anna opened the door, panicked, sweating, her hair windswept.

"Please tell me you've seen Kristoff."

"I haven't. Isn't he here somewhere?"

"No. I've been looking all over the castle for him. He was only going to the Trading Post, he should have been back hours ago. Elsa...what if something happened to him?"

Elsa put the black book, the Necronomicon, into a drawer, then pulled on her gloves.

"We'll go search, right now, and we'll find him. Come on."

Elsa blew out the candle, letting the darkness consume the room as she and her sister left.

* * *

><p>Bits of coal, sticks, and the single carrot floating in the puddle were all that remained of Olaf the snowman. Elsa could not bear to look at him for long, the guilt overwhelming her.<p>

"Your Majesty...shall we clean this up? Or leave it for the wolves?"

The guard indicated the remains of Olaf's animal friend.

"We'll give him a proper burial...but first we need to find Kristoff."

"Of course."

The captain of the guard moved up to the door of the darkened cabin, knocking loudly three times. At first there was no answer, but soon, a light inside flickered on, and the door swung open.

"Hoo-hoo, hello there captain. And your Highness, and your Royal Majesty."

Oaken removed his hat and bowed to the group.

"We're looking for Kristoff Bjorgman. His last known whereabouts were at this very spot, your Trading Post."

"Oh dear, I am very sorry captain, but I do not have any idea _vat _you are talking about."

The guard frowned, then stepped aside and gestured towards what was left of Olaf and Sven.

"Care to explain that, then?"

"Erm...vell, you see..."

Oaken trailed off, his friendly expression and fake accent fading.

"Damn it all. I thought it would have cleaned this all up by the time you idiots got here. I guess it isn't fully used to human commands..."

Oaken suddenly withdrew a small flintlock pistol from his sleeve, pointed it at the captain and fired into his stomach.

"_No_!"

Elsa shot two bolts of her magic towards Oaken. The first cut the pistol in half, and the second smacked him in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

The captain clutched at his wound in intense pain, the round embedded deep within.

"Get him out of here, tend to his wounds," the queen ordered three of the other guards. They gingerly picked up their captain and carried him over to the carriage, and were soon off, back down the mountain.

Oaken began to stand back up, but stopped mid-way when he found himself staring down the barrels of five muskets, each one wielded by one of the remaining guards.

"What the hell is going on here?! Where's Kristoff?!"

Anna looked down at Oaken, her voice shaking with anger.

"Hmmm...well, by now, he's probably my pet's dinner."

"...what?"

"You heard me. You won't even find any remains, he's been completely digested."

Anna gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth.

"...Kristoff..."

Oaken chuckled. "Aw, what's the matter? Miss your boyfriend? Not like you should, he was just a dirty ice harvester. But then again, it seems a little strumpet like you would go for his type, wouldn't you?"

"_Shut up_!"

Anna punched Oaken in the face, and he fell to the ground once more. Anna drove her knee down into his chest as she bent over him and punched him again, and again, and again.

"Anna, enough."

Two of the guards pulled Anna off the shopkeeper, as Elsa stepped forward.

"You've been here for years, and this entire kingdom trusted you. _Why, Oaken_?"

The shopkeeper got up to his knees, smiling back through his black eye and broken teeth.

"I have reached out to the Deep Ones and witnessed their enlightened vision. I have found favor in the eyes of their god, and on the day of His Rising, I will be dragged down into the waters and be amongst them, as their disciple and their brother."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know nothing of the world to come. I can't stop it, and neither can you."

Oaken drew out a sharp knife and jammed it into his own throat, drawing it across and digging through his neck.

His noises wet with his own blood, Oaken gasped out his final words.

"_Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn_!"

The former shopkeeper fell forward, his clothes stained with his blood. Elsa shook her head slowly, then motioned for her guards to head into the Trading Post.

The guards moved past Elsa and Anna, and into the cabin. They followed after them, standing by as they looked around the room, opening drawers, looking in shelves, turning over chairs, searching every nook and cranny. The only trace of Kristoff they found was his shirt, tucked away behind the shop's counter.

"Look in the sauna. He mentioned coming here to use it," commanded the queen.

There was nothing inside but the usual features that could be expected of a sauna. The room was small, and there was no place to hide anything. They were about to look outside of the cabin when a guard stepped over a spot on the floor.

"Did you hear that?"

He tapped his foot on the spot, hollow noises accompanying each hit against the ground; the point on the ground looked discolored, as though it were a separate piece from the rest of the flooring.

"Found something!"

Still out at the counter, Anna called to the group. On the side wall, behind a coat rack, she found a hidden panel in the wall. Moving it out of the way, she saw two levers.

Anna pulled the first lever, and the panel in the sauna room opened.

"A trapdoor," said Elsa. "There has to be at least a few passageways underneath here. That little hole can't be the only way in. Anna, try the second switch."

The princess did so, activating a built-in mechanism somewhere in the cabin. The counter moved forward, revealing a small staircase that ended at a door.

"You two, stay here with Anna. The three of _you_, follow me."

Elsa started down the steps, her guards following close behind.

In less than a second, the door had been turned to ice and shattered. Stepping through, the queen and her guards could see that it opened to a dark hallway, another door at the end. When they approached it, they heard quiet, dull knocks coming from the other side.

"Stand back, your Majesty. We will take care of this."

A guard moved forward to try the door, while his two partners stood by, muskets ready.

The knob turned easily in the guard's hand; it was not locked. Its rusted hinges swung open.

Behind the door sat Kristoff, covered in dirt from the floor, his hand up, knocking on the empty space where the door just was. He looked up and saw the people who had rescued him.

"Elsa?"

Kristoff quickly stood up and walked out into the hallway.

"Thank God you came, I thought I was going to die in there."

The ice harvester dusted himself off, wiping soot from his pants.

"We're just glad to know you're safe. Anna's upstairs, let's get out of here."

They headed for the exit door, but Kristoff stood where he was.

"Elsa, wait, listen to me. There's...something you should know."

"What?"

"...Oaken is keeping something in a dungeon down here. It very nearly ate me."

Elsa and the guards stopped in their tracks.

"...'something'? What is this 'something'?"

"It's something big. I don't know what it is, it was too dark to see. But for a while now it seems that _bastard_ has been locking people up in chains and letting that thing feast on them. Here...I'll show you."

Kristoff waved for them to follow him as he stepped back into the room he was just in. This room was yet another hallway, which led down to a final steel door, its window outfitted with bars. He pointed through them.

"It should still be in there somewhere..."

The five of them peered through the door's small window, trying to see if there was still anything within the dungeon's darkness.

_"Tekeli-li_."

From the other side, a large, black mass slammed against the door. It went back and charged forward again, hitting the door a second time, threatening to knock it right off its hinges.

As the five of them ran back for the relative safety upstairs, they could hear its loud, gutteral voice echo through the hallways.

"_Tekeli-li_. _Tekeli-li_._ Tekeli-li_."

* * *

><p>Anna held Kristoff, softly running her fingers through his hair as he sobbed into her arms.<p>

He could not control his grief after seeing the gory remains of the reindeer Sven; his head smashed in, his bones broken and twisted, his blood soaking the grass and the trees, his antlers splintered and lying in fragments, his insides torn open and thrown everywhere.

"He was my friend, Anna. For nearly 20 years..." Kristoff whispered.

"I know, Kristoff. I know..."

The burning cabin lit up the night, flames licking at the wood. While Elsa stood by and watched the entire scene unfold, her guards had already disposed of the remains of Sven and Oaken, and were now throwing the few bits of Olaf into the fire.

A loud, beastly shriek pierced the air, as the inferno reached down and burnt away at whatever had been living in Oaken's dungeon; a funeral pyre for a snowman, a reindeer, a deranged shopkeeper, and an unnamed entity lurking on the fringes of normal existence.

Burning out quickly from the oil that had been splashed over it, there was soon nothing left of Oaken's Trading Post but ashes.

On the ride home, Elsa reflected on the events of the previous few days: Marshmallow, Olaf, and Sven dead; three of Arendelle's citizens slaughtered on the shores of Arendelle; Oaken, the shopkeeper, revealed as a madman worshipping unnameable gods, a monster hiding within his cabin; a disconcerting black tome hidden away in secret, depicting unidentified seals and unspeakable rituals; an inhuman stranger, dressed like the ruler of an unknown kingdom, with long hair and cold, unfeeling black eyes.

Elsa watched the countryside pass by, dimly revealed by the moonlight.

"Your Majesty? Is something troubling you? Uh...aside from tonight's dreadful occurrence, that is."

The queen turned and looked at her guard.

"That thing that we saw tonight...down in Oaken's dungeon."

"Yes?"

"It was locked away in there. It could not have been what killed Olaf, Sven, or Marshmallow."

"Perhaps wolves did it? Or...a bear?"

"No, I don't think so. I've never seen anything that could just...brutally tear through a reindeer like that...or anything strong enough to rip up trees, or cut Marshmallow apart."

Elsa was right. Another one of the things was still out there.


	4. Chapter 4

The side of the bed sagged under Kristoff's weight. With his head already covered in bandages, he sat there with his arm outstretched, palm up, letting it rest on Anna's lap.

A roll of gauze held in one of her slender hands, Anna used the other to gently wrap it around Kristoff's grazed left wrist, where an iron shackle had been just the night before.

"How did you even get out of those chains, anyway?"

"Had to use a little bone on the ground near me to pick the lock on them. But the last one just wouldn't budge, so I had to jerk my hand right out of it."

"What about the door?"

"Picked that lock too. When you're raised by trolls you learn all kinds of little skills. I'm lucky that thing decided to eat another femur before it went for me."

When she was about to cross over his wrist with the gauze once more, Anna's hand slipped.

"_Ah_!"

Kristoff winced in pain, Anna gasping and dropping the gauze.

"Oh I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"Yeah...I think your nail just scraped the cuts, that's all."

Anna picked up the gauze and resumed her role as medic.

"I'm sorry," she repeated.

"It's okay..."

The wrapping complete, Anna reached for the pair of bandage scissors and cut through the gauze, separating it from the rest of the roll.

"All right, hold still."

Slowly and carefully, Anna stuck a medical pin through the bandages, fastening them into place. They sat like that together for a moment, then Anna raised Kristoff's dressed wrist to her lips and planted a gentle, yet firm, kiss on it.

"There we go. All better..." she whispered.

"We can't say the same for Olaf. Or _Sven_..." Kristoff shut his eyes, his lips trembling. He forced the tears down, stopping them prematurely.

Anna took both of his hands into hers, caressing them with her thumbs.

* * *

><p><em>Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They had trod Earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. <em>

Elsa blinked. Something about the tome was making her eyes unable to properly focus on the sentences. She had to read them one word at a time, then shut the book and piece the message together in her mind afterward.

She opened the Necronomicon to a different part.

_Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again._

Elsa jumped up in her seat a little when she heard the knock. The door opened partially, revealing the hall outside.

"My queen?" Kai's voice floated into the room. "Could you spare a moment? We have a rather sudden guest here who is demanding your attention."

"Um...yes, just wait one second..."

Elsa took the Necronomicon and let it fall into an empty lower drawer of her desk, shut it, then turned the numbers of its combination lock.

"Come in."

The door opened further, Kai holding it in place for the guest. He cleared his throat.

"May I present..._His Majesty King Klaus of the Southern Isles_."

Flanked by two members of his royal guard, Klaus walked into the room. He resembled a graying, middle-aged version of his 12th younger brother, his face sporting a combination of a short beard and a handlebar mustache. Various medals hung from his royal uniform, a glint of sunlight reflecting off his gold epaulets.

"Thank you Kai, you may go."

The butler gave the customary bow to his queen and left, letting the door swing shut.

"I have very little patience with the Southern Isles these days, Klaus. Whatever you have to say, make it quick."

The room instantly dropped in temperature, ice forming in the corners. The guards, already having heard many stories of Arendelle's snow queen, grew nervous and stepped back a bit.

"Guards. You may leave."

Relieved, and glad to obey their king, they did so. Klaus stepped forward, indicating the luxurious chair that sat across from Elsa.

"May I?"

"You're early. I wasn't expecting you for another few days."

"Yes, well...when I wrote the letter, I never realized how urgent things had become."

Elsa clenched her hands.

"You have a lot of nerve coming here, Klaus. Especially after what your brother did."

The Southern Isles monarch remained where he was, his face looking apologetic.

"He was an utter fool, your Majesty. It was very unwise of me to ever even consider letting him represent my kingdom at your coronation. But I am nothing like him. I'm not here to cause problems. I am here to make amends."

Elsa softened up a bit, but she remained skeptical.

"Why did you come here, Klaus? What problem is weighing so heavily on your mind, that you couldn't just address it in a letter?"

Klaus indicated the chair once more.

"May I _please_ have a seat? I...I really feel the need to be sitting down right now."

"Fine, you may."

"Thank you."

Klaus took his spot in the chair, letting his arms rest gently at each side of it. He gave a deep sigh.

"Your Majesty...have you ever considered...what the end of the world might look like?"

The queen's apprehensive expression remained, but on the inside, she felt that something was off.

"...what?"

"Have you ever given serious thought to how the world will end? What will bring an end to humanity, the Earth, the universe even?"

"I have already studied the Revelation of Saint John, and I'm sure you have too. Of course I know how things are to end. Why-"

"And what of the _Kitab al-Azif_? Have you studied that?"

Though she did not show it, Elsa was startled at the mention of the book. She could have told the truth about her finding it, but she decided to play it safe.

"I...don't know what you're referring to."

"Shortly after you were born, your father and I regularly maintained written correspondence with one another. He was very interested in magick, in sorcery, in forbidden knowledge."

Klaus hesitated, wondering if Elsa thought he had gone crazy, but he continued.

"Around 21 years ago, in London, one of the walls in St. Paul's Cathedral was being repaired. Workers knocked out a section of it, and found a dusty old book inside. Upon viewing its contents it's said that one of them went mad and tried to kill the others."

The queen was becoming uneasy.

"Normally the book would have been burned, but it mysteriously disappeared overnight. It did not resurface until around a month later, in your very own Arendelle. It then found its way into the hands of its king, your father. I vividly remember the letter from him after he obtained it. He described a black-eyed man with long hair appearing in his room and hand-delivering it to him in the dead of night."

Elsa's hands grew colder.

"And...what happened to this book?"

"It is unlike any other volume. And after your father saw what it contained-"

"Why didn't he destroy it?"

"He tried to, but any time he attempted it, he felt a strange compulsion not to. In the end, he could only hide it away within this castle."

For a split second, Elsa looked down near her feet, at the locked drawer.

"Where are you going with all of this, Klaus?"

Klaus turned his head to his left, peering out the glass window and at the mountains of Arendelle.

"_Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn_."

He looked back at her.

"_In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming_."

"Who...what is 'Cthulhu'?"

Klaus put his face in his hands.

"That's the news I have for you, your Majesty. The terrible, awful news."

He looked up.

"Deep in the Pacific Ocean, there is a city...a city that renders all our knowledge of mathematics useless. And the thing that sleeps within that city...that is the Great Old One, Cthulhu. And when the stars are right...that's when it will awaken."

Trying to calm herself, Elsa took a deep breath.

"...and what happens when it does awaken?"

Klaus put his head in his hands again.

"Then that's it, that's the end. It and its fishmen worshippers, the Deep Ones and their high priests Dagon and Hydra, will rise up out of the sea and claim this world as their own. What that means for us...I can only make guesses, but none of them are pleasant."

"How do you know all this?"

"Because I too once had a copy of that disgusting book, and I too once studied from it. I was a younger man back then, a much more foolish man. I took note of what it had to say about the constellations, about the planets, and how they related to the things that lurk our oceans."

Klaus swallowed, feeling like there was a lump in his throat.

"The stars are almost right. I give us five days at the most."

Elsa did not want to believe what the king was saying.

"And how do I know you aren't lying about all this? How do I know you aren't trying to trick me?

"Why would I lie about this, your Majesty? What do I possibly hope to gain by doing so? I would give _anything_ to be able to say 'Yes, it is a lie'. I would give up my royal status, all of my wealth, my opulent palace, and live the rest of my days as a peasant if it meant that I could say it was all just a ghastly lie."

"Forgive me for being skeptical, but after what Hans tried to do-"

"_Hans is DEAD!_" Klaus slammed his fist on the desk. "_My rash, shortsighted, idiotic little brother decided to fuck around with that damned book, and he paid for it with his life! Slaughtered in his cell by some twisted fucking monster!_"

He paused, then straightened himself up and took another breath.

"My deepest apologies, your Majesty. That was unbecoming of someone of my stature. Forgive me."

In spite of being surprised at the royal's outburst, she was still focused mostly on the matter at hand.

"It's fine, Klaus...but this thing, it's all the way in the Pacific Ocean. Surely it would never reach us?"

Klaus closed his eyes and hung his head, choosing his next words with care.

"To make up for my brother's treachery, I came here to share this information with you because I felt you deserved the truth, no matter how disconcerting, no matter how horrifying. That, and because Cthulhu's awakening directly concerns your fair kingdom of Arendelle. You see, even though R'lyeh is on the other side of the world, the Pacific is merely its resting place. I do not know why, but it is inexorably linked with the seas near this nation. When it rises up from beneath the waves, it will do so here."

"But...what?"

"The city of R'lyeh contains structures unlike any you have ever seen before. It, and its occupant, dwells in the spaces between our reality, and the spaces between those."

Elsa's heart sank. She stared at her gloved hands, still resting on her desk.

"Is there anything we can do? _Anything at all_?" she whispered.

Klaus opened his eyes again.

"I have already spoken with Victoria on this matter, and she has agreed to have Great Britain give refuge to anyone in this area. Many nearby kingdoms have already evacuated, including my own. They now all stand empty, every last one. And hopefully, when the creature makes its way here, Arendelle will already be as well."

It looked as though Elsa's letters she had sent would remain unanswered.

"And what will that accomplish?"

"It will buy us time, but-"

"And then what? We just let it continue, we let it plow through all these countries until it gets to Britain anyway? That isn't a solution, that just delays the inevitable!"

A tear rolled down Klaus' cheek, settling into his beard.

"I am sorry. Truly, I am. But I see no other course of action..."

He wiped at his eyes as Elsa stood up.

"...I will stay. I will stay, and fight. I will destroy the Deep Ones, I will destroy Dagon, I will destroy Hydra, I will destroy R'lyeh, and I will destroy Cthulhu."

"That is impossible, you cannot k-"

"_Don't tell me what is and isn't possible, Klaus_."

The king jumped at her reply.

"I will evacuate my people to Britain, and I will remain here and hold the creature and its servants to this spot. It will not go any further."

Klaus was shocked. "Are you mad? You stand no chance against them."

Elsa looked directly into his eyes. "_I've been running from things my entire life...no more. I am through with that. The whole world is now in danger, and it seems I'm the only one that can do anything about it. I will face this head-on_."

"...very well. I have said what I came here to say. I wish you the best of luck."

He bowed, and turned to leave.

"Klaus."

He stopped.

"...yes?"

"Thank you. For warning me."

"You are very welcome, Elsa. Godspeed."

The queen watched him leave, then sat back down at her desk. Taking pen to paper, she began to write out the speech she would need to give her people in just a day's time; the last speech she would ever give them.


	5. Chapter 5

_King Agdar of Arendelle tossed and turned about in his large royal bed, flipping himself onto his right side for what seemed like the millionth time. His wife was sound asleep beside him, but he had been up for the better part of the hour, kept awake by an unwelcome sense of foreboding. He rubbed his nose, laying his head back down on the pillow and shutting his eyes._

If I just think of how very tired I am, how much I want to just sleep, how much I-

_His thoughts were interrupted when he felt the end of the mattress depress, the sound of something sitting down on it: the thing was back._

_Agdar kept his eyes shut, not wanting to open them and see what had come to visit him. He already knew who it was, but he imagined that if he kept his eyes closed, he could imagine his visitor wasn't really there._

_"Pretending it isn't real won't make it go away, Your Majesty."_

_The king quietly groaned when he heard the strange, familiar accent. His eyes fluttered open as he sat up and peered toward the "person" sitting at the foot of his bed. Silhouetted against the moonlight, he could just make out his features: long brown hair, silver epaulets on his royal uniform, cape hanging down his back, the dark gray of his skin and the blackness of his eyes somehow standing out from the darkness around him._

_Under the usual scenario of an intruder inside his castle, in his very room, Agdar would have immediately called for his royal guard. But his past failures to even get them to hear his shouts had taught him how useless it was._

_"You again. Why do you keep coming back?"_

_The man moved aside his cape, revealing a black book clutched in his right hand._

_"Take it."_

_He held it out for Agdar, who did not move to take it from him, instead remaining where he was._

_"Why should I? What reason do I have to trust you? I don't even know what you are."_

_"I am merely a teacher, Your Majesty. A professor of knowledge, if you will. I am offering you the knowledge which you have been lusting after ever since you discovered your first tome at the tender age of 14. It is the same knowledge that humanity has lusted for throughout the ages, the knowledge which mankind so desperately seeks. In short, I simply offer you the truth; nothing more, nothing less."_

_Agdar stared at the book, wondering if he wanted to really take it, wondering if the dusty pages were worth it. But those doubts were short-lived as he felt something come over him. Almost impulsively, he reached out and slowly took the book from his visitor's hand._

_He looked down at the bound manuscript, turning it around in his hands, feeling the leathery cover, running his fingers around the metallic clasp._

_"The British could not handle this information. Unfortunate, really. But I am certain that you can, Your Majesty. I have faith in you."_

_"Yes...I want the truth. No matter what it is."_

_He was about to release the book's clasp and view its contents._

_"As long as you'll leave me alone from now o-"_

_"Sweetheart?"_

_The king flinched when he felt the hand on his shoulder. He looked to his left._

_Idunn, his wife, had awoken. She stared at her husband, concerned._

_"Who are you talking to?"_

* * *

><p>Queen Elsa sighed, dotting the last period of her final sentence. Writing out her speech had taken so much effort, and yet it was surprisingly short. But for its intended purpose, it had to be.<p>

"More tea, Your Majesty?"

The maid Gerda stepped into the room, a small silver tray in her hands. A matching teapot lay on top, steam still drifting out of the spout.

"No thank you, Gerda. I'm not very thirsty right now. You may take the cup."

Her maidservant did so, taking the half-emptied teacup and saucer and setting them on the tray.

"Will there be anything else, ma'am?"

"Yes."

Elsa opened a drawer, carefully placing her speech inside, then shutting it.

"I need all of the citizens of Arendelle assembled outside the castle gates, tomorrow morning. I also need all of our ships ready to set sail by tomorrow afternoon."

"...what?"

"It's going to take a while, but we should have enough time if we start soon. Inform the guards, they'll need to be making rounds through the kingdom and telling the people where they'll need to be. I will also need notices posted in town, especially the marketplace."

"Your Majesty...is something wrong?"

"Yes. Something is very, very wrong. Tell Kai, tell the rest of the servants, tell the guards. Please, Gerda. I need this done. Soon."

Gerda gave a semi-curtsy, her hands occupied with the tray.

"Of course. I will trust your judgement, as always."

"Thank you."

She waited until the maidservant had left, before unlocking the drawer to her desk.

For a moment, Elsa looked at the book that lay at the bottom. Carefully, she reached down and picked it up, holding it like it was a dead animal. She then walked over to the small fireplace, still burning bright.

The Necronomicon felt heavy in her hand, heavier than it had before, heavier than it had any right to be.

Elsa knew what she had to do next, but she suddenly felt an urge to hold onto the tome, as though what she held was a priceless treasure, and not a foul book full of untold horrors. Doing her best to ignore it, the queen raised her hand up, ready to cast the book into the fire.

Elsa found herself having difficulty even moving her arm. It was as though some invisible force was pulling on her, compelling her to move the book back to the drawer, preventing her from moving.

She started to hear voices in her head. She heard words, phrases of an unknown language. She could only guess as to the origin of the alien phrases, if they were even real at all.

Mustering up every last bit of willpower she had, Elsa heaved the book into the fire.

At first, it seemed to be unaffected by the flames, as though it were somehow resisting the heat. But soon, it began to burn. Its cover and pages were incinerated, and along with it, its disturbing contents.

Elsa watched the Necronomicon, the Book of Dead Names, roast away in the fire. Eventually, when there was nothing left but ashes, she breathed a sigh of relief, as though a great weight had been lifted from her.

It was only a small victory; there was still much more to come.

* * *

><p><em>Idunn walked into the library, carrying Anna in her arms. The queen usually read a story to her daughter before putting her to bed, and tonight was no different.<em>

_"Mama, why doesn't papa ever read to me?"_

_"He's very busy with his work, Anna. It's his job to look after this kingdom, just like I look after you."_

_"Oh," the small princess said simply. But soon, another question sprung into her active mind._

_"Why doesn't Elsa play with me anymore?"_

_Idunn sighed, setting her daughter on the couch and gently stroking the white streak that ran through her otherwise strawberry blonde hair._

_"Papa isn't going to be king forever, Anna. One day Elsa is going to have to take his place and she'll be in charge of Arendelle. But being a queen is hard work, and it takes a lot of studying. Do you understand?"_

_Anna seemed disappointed, but she nodded._

_"Now, let's see what we're going to read tonight."_

_Anna's eyes lit up. "I wanna pick the story, I wanna pick!"_

_Endeared to her daughter, Idunn agreed. "Well, okay."_

_The young girl moved off the couch and ran to the closest shelf, immediately spotting what she wanted and pulling it out._

_"This! I wanna read this!"_

_The queen smiled, but her happy expression soon changed to one of shock as she saw just what sort of volume her daughter was holding._

_"It's just like the one in my dreams! I bet it even has C...C..."_

_Anna struggled to pronounce the word, the one she had heard in her sleep only recently._

_"_Cthulhu."

_Idunn was horrified._

"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."

* * *

><p>Elsa stood outside her sister's room, not looking forward to what she had to do next. She could hear Kristoff and Anna talking, their words muffled by the door between them. The queen put her hand on the doorknob, and saw it frost over. Concentrating, Elsa slowly breathed in, then out, then in and out once more, regaining her composure as the knob turned back to normal. With one more deep breath for luck, she opened the door.<p>

Anna and Kristoff looked up at the monarch, their conversation cut short.

"Kristoff, could I speak with you outside? It will only take a moment."

"Uh...sure?"

The ice harvester nodded to Anna, then got up from the bed and walked out of the room to where his queen stood, shutting the door behind him and leaving the princess sitting there by herself.

In less than a minute, Elsa had stepped through the door and back into the room, Kristoff noticeably absent.

"Where's-"

"Anna, there's something I have to tell you," interrupted Elsa. She breathed deeply again, quelling the fear inside her.

"...okay?"

"This place isn't safe anymore."

Anna look puzzled. "Wait, what?"

Elsa shut the door, making sure no one would be able to listen in. "This place, Arendelle. As long as you stay here, you're in danger. Which is why you, and everyone else, will be leaving here tomorrow."

Anna stared, then she smiled, bursting into laughter. "You tell terrible jokes, Elsa."

The laughing quickly faded when she saw that her sister wasn't pretending.

"I will be informing the rest of the kingdom about this tomorrow, but I thought you should be one of the first to know."

"What do you mean? And where's Kristoff?"

"He's heading down to the trolls' valley as we speak, with the same news. They need to get out of here too, and I don't know if they would believe me. But I know they would listen to him."

"But where will we go?"

"You'll be heading down south to Britain."

"...Britain? Why?"

"Because it's safer there. Because something is coming, and I don't want you or anyone else around when it gets here."

"What? 'Something'?"

"Yes. I don't know that much about it...I'm sorry, I would tell you more, but..."

"...but _what_? Elsa, you can trust me. Always. You don't have to hide anything from me anymore."

Elsa placed a hand on her sister's shoulder, looking her directly in the eye. "There is more to say, but this is something that I really can't tell you. Please, I need you to trust me on this. It's for your own good."

For a second Anna was quiet. Then, she spoke.

"What about you? You're coming with us, right?"

The queen folded her hands in her lap and looked at her feet.

"Elsa..."

"I'm sorry, Anna. Protecting Arendelle is my responsibility. I failed at that duty during my coronation, I won't fail at it again."

Anna moved a bit closer and wrapped her arms around her sister, pulling her into a hug.

"I don't want to lose you, Elsa. Not after everything we've been through."

"You won't lose me. Everything's going to be all right, I promise."

The siblings held onto each other, neither of them wanting to let go. But they knew they had to.

"I guess I'll pack."

Elsa tried her best to smile, only partially succeeding.

"Okay. But travel lightly. You're only going away for a short time."

She gave another brief hug to her sister before stepping out. After the door had closed, Elsa shut her eyes and leaned against the door, her back to it, a reversal of the roles she and her sister had played in their teenage years.

* * *

><p><em>Idunn stormed into her husband's study. Looking up from his work, Agdar became worried after seeing the angry expression on his wife's face.<em>

_"Do you know what Anna wanted me to read to her tonight?"_

_She held up the black book. Its dark cover glistened in the dim light cast by the oil lamp that sat on the king's desk._

_Agdar furrowed his brow. "But how did she-"_

_"She didn't have much problem finding it, since you so carelessly put it right on the bookshelf where she could find it! This isn't proper reading for anyone, let alone our own daughter!"_

_Setting the pen down, Agdar got up out of his chair and moved to take the book from the queen's hand. He held it up, viewing it with suspicion._

_"Very odd..."_

_"I heard Anna speaking complete nonsense words to me. She said she was having dreams about that thing! She hasn't even seen it before!"_

_"But I don't know how she found it. I could have sworn I locked it in the safe, with the jewelry."_

_"Well, you obviously thought wrong. You have to take her back to Pabbie."_

_"We've already altered her memory once, dear. I don't want to-"_

_"And I don't want her head filled with all sorts of horrible dreams! I had a look inside that book, it's disgusting! I want it gone and out of our lives!"_

_Agdar weighed his options in his mind; on one hand, he possessed a tome filled with secrets unknown to most of humanity, which he desperately wanted to decipher; but on the other hand, the well-being of one of his children was at stake. In the end, there was no contest._

_The king took his wife into his arms, gently rubbing her back._

_"...all right. Tomorrow evening, we'll get those thoughts out of her head, and you'll never see this book again. Not you, not Anna, not Elsa, not me. Okay?"_

_Reassured, Idunn relaxed in her husband's embrace. _

_"Okay."_

_Agdar thought he felt the book squirm in his hand._

* * *

><p>Elsa had been staring at the ceiling for the last two hours. She could not sleep; her mind was too occupied with the thoughts of what the following day would bring. The stifling uncertainty weighed on her like a ball and chain.<p>

When she heard something small jump onto the mattress, she sat up and looked down at the foot of her bed. It was a cat, bearing a rather uncanny resemblance to the one she had seen at the beach, just a few days earlier.

"_Meow_."

The feline walked closer to her, putting one of its paws forward onto her leg, peering up at her with its yellow eyes. Even in the semi-darkness, its pupils were still slits. Slightly perturbed, Elsa reached a hand out to stroke the animal's fur.

"_Tekeli-li_."

Easily violating the conservation of mass, the "cat" turned its paw into a tendril almost as big as an elephant's trunk. It shot towards its intended victim.

The queen dodged out of the way just in time. She extended a hand and blasted her attacker with ice. It was blown back, smacking into the wall as Elsa threw the blankets off her and leaped out of bed.

As she watched the thing finish its transformation, she could plainly see that it was never really a cat: this was another entity like that which Oaken had kept hidden away in his cellar.

The creature floated 6 or 7 feet off the ground, rapidly stretching out more barbed tentacles, trying to grab at Elsa. She ducked and fired several large icicles from her hands. They found their mark, shooting into the creature's amorphous body.

It seemed unfazed at Elsa's initial attack. She only just managed to cut through a tendril as it whipped down at her. Moving her hands about as quick as she could, Elsa sent a barrage of bolts at the thing, cutting it into chunks of slimy flesh.

In disbelief, the queen saw the parts wriggle about, crawling back together and reassembling themselves. She only just managed to jump aside as it picked up her bed, frame and all, and smashed it down on the ground where she had been standing.

Thinking on her feet, Elsa remembered how they had disposed of the other, very similar creature: fire. Perhaps the cold could provide a similar result.

Dodging a few chairs it was throwing at her, Elsa snapped her fingers, proving her theory correct: the monstrosity froze almost instantly, becoming nothing more than a grotesque statue of ice. Whatever allowed it to levitate stopped working as it fell to the floor, smashing to pieces.

Having heard all the commotion, two guards burst into the room.

"Your Majesty, are you all right? We heard the noises and...what is _that_?"

Elsa straightened herself up.

"Have these bits swept up, then take them outside and burn them."

"But what-"

"Please, just follow my instruction."

"Of course, my apologies."

When everything had been cleaned up, and she was alone again, Elsa looked towards the small couch. It was just big enough for one person to lie down on comfortably, and it looked as though it would serve as her bed tonight. She sat down, and started to pull the blanket around her.

"Shoggoths are nasty creatures, wouldn't you say?"

Elsa shot a magic bolt to her right; the source of the voice, the dark-haired man with the silver epaulets and cape of eldritch design.

"Now, now. Is that any way to treat a guest?" he said, unharmed by the ice.

"You again. What do you want now?"

"That creature you killed in the shopkeeper's cabin, and the one you killed tonight, the shoggoth. Shapeshifters, they can make themselves appear in a wide variety of forms. Their true form is not quite so pretty, as I am sure you would agree."

Elsa rubbed her head, exasperated.

"I don't know who or what you are, but I want you gone. _Now_."

"Do you? Before I have even said my bit?"

"..._fine_..."

The man produced a golden crown from seemingly nowhere, putting it on top his head.

"That creature you killed tonight, and that one you killed down at the shopkeeper's trading post...don't think you have seen the last of them. They have a much bigger supply of servitors which they will not hesitate to use against you."

"...'they'?"

"The Deep Ones."

Frost spread around the corners of the room.

"They created these things?"

"Of course not, they merely adopted them as their own. A quite different sort of race was responsible for the genesis of the shoggoth. But that is neither here nor there."

The man put his index finger into his mouth, then bit down on hit, hard. Drawing it out again, Elsa saw an unnatural amount of blood begin to drip from the wound he had made with his teeth.

"I suggest you pay attention to this next part, your Majesty."

In a bizarre pastiche of fingerpainting, he drew a strange but simple pattern on the floor. It almost resembled a tree branch, a single line with five shorter lines breaking off from it.

"That is the Elder Sign. Draw that anywhere on a ship, and not a single Deep One will come near it. It is quite useful for fishermen, or perhaps evacuating peasantry. If you had studied the Necronomicon a bit further, instead of so rashly destroying it, you would have found this all out on your own."

Elsa was apprehensive. "Why are you telling me all this?"

The man smiled, showing his teeth still drenched with blood (why was there so much of it?).

"I find my own brethren to be such crashing bores. But you, you interest me. Out of all the humans I have ever come to know, you are by far the most intriguing. Really, I mean that. And so, I felt it would be fitting if I gave you a slightly better chance at braving what is to come. Not much more of a chance, granted, but better than none at all, wouldn't you say?"

The queen still did not trust him, but curiosity was gnawing at her.

"What are you? Really?"

The man turned, his head slowly moving to look at her.

"If you knew, you would not be able to look at anything that even remotely resembled a trapezohedron without wanting to vomit."

With that, he vanished.

Elsa placed her head in her hands; she felt like a small, scared child again, running from shapes she could only barely perceive in the darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

"Okay, this is it."

With a gentle pull of the reins, the driver stopped his horse in its tracks and brought the carriage to a halt.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked.

"Definitely. I know the area well, trust me."

"All right, but make it quick. I don't have all night."

"It shouldn't take longer than 10 minutes. I'll see you in a bit."

Kristoff opened the door, hopping out with his lantern already lit. Holding it up, he could just make out the treeline of the forest which marked the beginning of the Valley of the Living Rock.

As he stepped into the foliage, he thought wistfully of how much faster he could have travelled if his reindeer were still with him. He pushed the thought away; there were more important things at hand. He was, after all, sent here on the queen's orders.

Walking deeper into the woods, Kristoff soon came across an area he had come to know like the back of his hand: a large clearing, with dozens upon dozens of medium-sized rocks, just barely visible in the lantern's light.

"Hey guys, I have something to tell you. It's a direct order from the queen herself, so listen up."

Normally, the rocks would have all rolled towards him, unfurling into the shape of the trolls. But this time, they did not move.

"Guys?"

Kristoff turned here and there, looking for any response from them. He didn't realize that something had gone wrong until he stepped in something wet, and he didn't realize why they didn't respond until he looked down at what he had stepped in: a small, dark-green puddle. To someone unacquainted with trolls, it would be an unidentified substance, but Kristoff recognized it instantly.

It was troll blood.

Alarmed, the ice harvester extended his arm out to try and illuminate more of the scene around him.

"Gothi? Cliff? Bulda?"

None of the names he uttered produced any response from the trolls they belonged to. As his light shone further around the area, he saw more puddles and trails of green blood.

Kristoff ran up to a grouping of rocks and looked down at them. In the glow of his lantern, he saw deep gashes in each rock, as though someone had cut into them with something sharp.

Panicking now, he looked at other rocks, and saw they had all been sliced up in a similar fashion. Amongst them, a few trolls had transformed into their true forms, but they suffered the same fate as their friends around them.

"Oh my God. Oh my God."

Kristoff bent down to see if any of them were still breathing, when he heard a voice call out from the darkness behind him.

"It's useless, Kristoff. They're dead, every last one of them."

He whipped his head back to see that there was one last troll alive: Grand Pabbie, the troll elder, sitting alone on a tree stump. Walking closer to him, he saw that in his left hand he held a small axe, its head stained with emerald liquid.

"_Pabbie_..._what did you do?!"_

"I had to kill them," he replied sadly, staring at the ground. "I tried to do it while they enjoyed their last moments of sleep, but a few of the children woke up..."

Kristoff couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. He would have never thought that Pabbie, the kindly old troll, the same one he saw heal Anna and talk to her family about true love, would have ever been capable of something like this.

"_Why_?"

"I didn't want to do it, Kristoff, believe me, I truly didn't. But it is better this way. At least now they'll be spared from the horror that is to come when that monster awakens."

He held the axe out for Kristoff. "Take it. Kill me, put me out of my misery. It's all I deserve."

Tears of anger and grief streaming down his face, the mountain man charged forward and tackled Pabbie to the ground, the axe flying from him. Grabbing hold of his moss shirt, he brought punch after punch down into his face. As his fist struck the troll's stone-like skin over and over, he felt a knuckle break. He barely noticed the pain, hitting him in the mouth one last time and knocking several of his teeth out.

"How could you Pabbie? _YOU BASTARD, HOW COULD YOU_?!"

Bruised and bleeding, he stared back up at Kristoff.

"Our time is over, my boy. A new era is upon us, and we have no part in it. We're insignificant to them, less than insects. Please, just end my existence. If you have any sense at all, you'll kill yourself when you're done with me."

Kristoff let go of Pabbie's shirt, slowly rising to his feet. Taking the axe into his hands, he closed his eyes and brought it down into the troll's forehead. Pulling it out and tossing it aside, he only glanced at the now-dead body for a second. He shook his head as he looked around at the corpses of the trolls, most of them still frozen in a sleeping pose, as though they could still wake up at any moment.

Under better circumstances, Kristoff would have buried each and every one of his former family members, but there was no time. He picked his lantern up and started to head out of the forest, quietly sobbing to himself.

When he had made his way back to the carriage and climbed back inside, the driver took one look at his reddened eyes and injured hand and winced.

"God Almighty, man. What happened in there?"

"Forget it. Let's just get the hell out of here."

* * *

><p><em>With as much strength as he could muster, Agdar pushed the bookshelf in front of the small hallway, concealing it from prying eyes. It was a task that he would have normally delegated to servants, but no one could know of the area's existence, nor of a certain forbidden text he had hidden away within it.<em>

_In spite of Idunn's urges to destroy the book, he had found he could not do so. It was almost like an outside force was influencing him to keep it, but Agdar himself doubted it. He blamed himself: he simply did not possess the resolve._

_"Disappointing, Agdar. Very disappointing, indeed."_

_Turning away from the bookshelf, he saw the familiar dark man from the unknown kingdom. His cape lightly blew out from behind him, even though the room lacked any breeze._

_"I give you the knowledge you so desperately craved, and you squander it and reject it by hiding it away from yourself."_

_Agdar stood his ground, mustering up as much courage as he could._

_"I don't care for your knowledge, demon. You will leave me and my family alone, understand?"_

_The strange man narrowed his black eyes, dropping any pretense of formality. "You are not in a position to order me about, human."_

_"You don't frighten me."_

_The thing smirked. "Is that a challenge? Because I could very easily meet it."_

_Agdar felt a chill run down his spine, but he did not let it show._

_"I told you before, and I will only tell you once more: stay away from me, and stay away from my family. Now get out of my kingdom and don't come back. Ever."_

_"_Hmph_. Very well then. As a gentleman, I will honor your request. This is the last visit you will have..."_

_He turned on his heel and began to walk away. But before he was about to step out, he glanced back at the king of Arendelle._

_"...from me, anyway."_

_He continued, walking right through the closed library door._

* * *

><p>"...and that is why I am asking you all to leave. This place is not safe anymore."<p>

From the light of the early morning sun, Elsa took another quick look at the paper that sat on the podium she stood behind.

"I am giving you all exactly one hour to go back to your homes and grab any necessary items you will need. Food, medicine, clothing, blankets, take only what you can carry. Do not overburden yourself. Our ships only have so much room."

She peered into the eyes of the large crowd of Arendelle citizens that had gathered in front of her, scanning the expressions of different people; some looked tired, some looked sad, but they all looked scared.

Elsa shut her eyes, partially to reflect on the situation, partially to prevent anyone from seeing any tears that threatened to well up.

"...I'm sorry, I don't...I don't know if you'll have anything to come back to...forgive me..."

She opened her eyes. Abandoning her written speech, she addressed the people unscripted.

"I am glad you accepted me back, even after I froze this land. I'm honored to be your queen, and I wish you all a safe journey. Thank you..."

She looked at the crowd, then around at her guards and servants that stood near her.

"...all of you."

The crowd dispersed, filing out of the gates and heading back to gather up their small necessities. Turning away from the podium, Elsa headed back for the castle doors.

"Kristoff, where are the trolls? They should have been here by now."

Walking in tandem, the ice harvester touched his hand, feeling the bandages that covered it, in addition to the wounds he had received after his encounter with the shoggoth.

"They're dead," he said quietly. "They're all dead now."

Elsa stopped. "What do you mean?"

"Pabbie lost his mind, he slaughtered them. I had no choice but to kill him."

The queen sighed deeply. "Another atrocity. Unbelievable. Not a single one survived?"

"No. First Sven, now them...my entire family...is gone..."

Kristoff's sentence trailed off, the final words of it getting caught in his throat. Putting a comforting hand on his shoulder, Elsa spoke.

"Kristoff, I'm sorry. Truly, I am. I know what it's like to lose family. But there's very, very little time. Anna is already down at the docks with both of your things. Go to her, and get the two of you onto a boat."

Keeping his emotions in check, he nodded.

"All right."

He started to jog down to the harbor.

"Kristoff!"

He turned to look back.

"Yeah?"

"...please take good care of Anna..."

Exchanging one last look with his queen, he nodded to her.

"I will. I promise."

With that, the two friends parted ways, never to see each other again.

* * *

><p><em>The schooner moved wildly about in the waves, threatening to be capsized.<em>

_"Grab onto something!" Agdar shouted to his wife. Clinging to a railing near the stern, Idunn could barely see her husband, her vision largely obscured by the wind undoing her twist bun and blowing her hair into her face._

_The captain and his sailors did their best to fight against the storm, throwing buckets upon buckets of seawater overboard, but things were starting to look hopeless._

_Using the port railing to steady himself, the king slowly but surely made his way over to the queen._

_"Grab my arm!"_

_Just before she could do so, a giant webbed hand shot out of the water and wrapped its long fingers around Idunn. She shrieked as she was pulled overboard, down into the freezing, choppy depths._

_"Idunn! NO!"_

_It was too late. His wife was gone._

_With a flash of lightning, Agdar, the captain, and his sailors thought they saw something in one of the waves. Something huge._

_Inhuman roars mixed in with that of the roar of thunder as the wave crashed down onto the ship._

* * *

><p>Elsa watched the last boat pull away and make its way across the fjord to join the others. Arendelle's hundreds and hundreds of citizens waved at her, and she waved back.<p>

She could still just make out the form of a certain person standing near the stern of one of the ships, her strawberry-blonde hair contrasting with the blue of the sky.

Elsa waved at Anna and the rest of her people until they had disappeared around the corner of the mountain. After they had finally left her sight, she let her arm drop to her side, and stood there for a short time longer, feeling the breeze on her face.

With the Elder Sign painted onto each boat, Elsa knew that they would be able to safely make it to Britain, their destination. She looked at the fjord, at the mountains, at the main town, and finally, her castle.

There was still work to do.

* * *

><p>With a full kitchen staff, the queen had not had to cook for herself in quite a while. But tonight was different.<p>

Her carrots already finished, Elsa cut into a piece of potato, taking a bite. Even though there was no one else around to scrutinize, she still ate like a proper lady, the way she had been taught by her parents.

When her dinner had been finished, Elsa looked at her dessert: a small plate with a few pieces of chocolate. With the first piece, she was able to swallow it without a problem. With the second piece, she thought of how chocolate was Anna's favorite. With the third piece, she remembered how it was just the type of snack they would try and steal from the kitchens, sneaking out of bed at night as children.

With the fourth piece, Elsa was only just able to chew on it and swallow before her lip began to tremble.

The fifth piece did not even make it to her mouth before she dropped it and pushed the plates off the table, her face in her hands.

Elsa sat there in the chair for a long while, all alone, the only person left in the entire kingdom, crying harder than she had ever cried before, tears continuing to fall from her face as the night took over the castle and shrouded it in darkness.


	7. The End

"Wake up."

Through the haze of sleep, Queen Elsa of Arendelle heard the voice penetrating the silence. She did not have any difficulty being shaken from her rest. She was always a light sleeper, particularly on this day, with the knowledge of the task she would have to soon undertake weighing heavily on her mind.

Dim sunlight, diffused by the overcast sky outside, filtered through Elsa's eyelids as they fluttered open. Lifting her head up from her arms folded on the table, she turned to look at her visitor.

Brushing aside a strand of dark hair with his long index finger, the man peered down at the queen.

"The time is drawing near, your Majesty. You don't want to miss your big day, do you?"

"I wasn't planning to. I was only hoping that I could get some sleep. Without being interrupted."

His lips curled upwards. Elsa couldn't tell if his smile was borne out of concern, or amusement.

"Well, it is good to see you decided to rest up. We wouldn't want to see you fall down from exhaustion before the whole thing is over, now would we?"

He moved and peered out the window.

"But my oh my, you have certainly assembled quite the army. Are you sure it will be enough? The Deep Ones will not take very kindly to you standing in their way."

"Stop talking to me and get out of my kingdom. Now."

Elsa pushed past the man and fiddled with the latch on the window, turning it and letting the pane of glass swing open.

"That's just what your father told me."

The queen ignored the unwanted guest, finished with listening to him. She leapt from the window, materializing ice beneath her and sliding down her newly-formed path.

The man watched her descend down to the fjord, and sighed to himself.

"Young people these days. They have no respect for their Elders..."

Smoke swirled around him and he faded away, just as mysteriously as he arrived.

* * *

><p>A dark sense of <em>déjà vu <em>came over Elsa as she remembered the night of her coronation. Anna had gone to such lengths to help her and reverse what had happened to the land, and here Arendelle was, frozen again.

Thoughts moved through the queen's head: thoughts of the long years shut away in her room, thoughts of losing her parents, thoughts of Hans' failed attempt at the throne, thoughts of her nearly losing her sister.

In comparison to the predicament she found herself in, the problems of her past seemed almost nostalgic.

Elsa brought herself to focus back on the present as she landed smoothly on the surface of the frozen fjord. Waving away her ice slide, she turned around and surveyed the features of her standing army.

Assembled before their creator, more than a thousand frosty knights stood at attention. Standing at 8 feet tall, each one was equipped with weapons of magical ice: a sword strapped to their side, a large shield in their left hand, and a long pike in their right.

"You know your orders. Anything that comes up from the sea, you kill. Do you understand?"

The icemen responded with a collective stomp of their feet. Unlike their departed relatives, Olaf and Marshmallow, they possessed no voice, personality or emotion. They had been designed solely for war, nothing more, nothing less.

Elsa took one last look at her surroundings. Her gaze lingered on the big, orange bonfire that sat atop a cliff, wood being thrown into it periodically by two icemen, their bodies protected from the heat by their own personal flurries.

Everything was in place.

Out past the fjord, where the ice ended and the water began, a scaly hand broke up through the surface. The thing the hand belonged to grabbed onto the ice and hauled itself up.

As the cold seawater dripped off its dark-green, rubbery-looking body, Elsa got her first good look at the undersea race which she had only heard rumors of up to that point. It appeared to be a cross between a human and a very, very ugly fish. Its mouth, devoid of lips, seemed fixed into a permanent snarl. Its knife-like teeth were as sharp as its claws, which sprouted off each webbed finger.

Dozens upon dozens of more hands reached out of the sea, climbing up onto the solid fjord. They stood there for a moment, their dark eyes all fixed on the snow queen.

"Battle formations."

Her army obeyed the order, rapidly moving into a Macedonian phalanx and blocking off the entire main passage into Arendelle, barring entry.

Just as the Deep Ones broke into a sprint towards her, Elsa whistled. From above, another of her creations, a giant ice eagle, flew down. She quickly climbed onto its back and was carried up into the sky. The fish people rushed past her, charging towards the winter battalion.

Without hesitation, the Deep Ones charged straight into the waiting spears of their opponents. They willingly stabbed themselves through, dark blue blood spattering onto the fjord.

From out of the water, a few dozen more of the creatures ran forward, again allowing themselves to be speared on the end of their enemies' weapons.

Up in the air circled the eagle, Elsa being safely carried on top of it. As she viewed the fight below, she saw the Deep Ones repeat their actions over and over again. A group of them would come out of the water, run to the icemen, and kill themselves by leaping right into the pikes which were thrust toward them.

The Deep Ones were not even attacking her soldiers, they were just committing mass suicide. Elsa knew something was wrong; the skirmish was going too smoothly, things were going too well.

Inland, behind the phalanx and underneath the surface, loud thuds rang out as something slammed against the ice repeatedly. Web-like cracks appeared where it had been hit, expanding with each blow.

The Deep Ones that remained on the fjord jumped toward the ice soldiers and commenced their attack, swiping at their faceless heads and putting the first row on the defense.

Frozen shards flew through the air as a huge fist bashed through the ice. From the hole that now exposed the tunnel beneath, more Deep Ones poured through, coming up onto the fjord and flanking the back of the phalanx. Amid the groups of green fishmen, a sickly purple one emerged from the freezing water. It was decidedly bigger than its brethren, by at least eight or nine times.

Although she had only witnessed it briefly within the yellowed pages of the Necronomicon, Elsa immediately recognized the monster: Father Dagon, high priest of the Deep Ones.

"Maintain your positions! Lines nine and ten, fall back and engage!"

The two back rows of the phalanx obeyed their queen and turned around to do battle with their aquatic rivals, throwing their pikes at them and drawing their swords, going on the offensive.

Elsa could not let the formation be broken up. She waved her hand and re-sealed the ice that the beasts had bored through, cutting off their forces and limiting them to the front of the battlefield.

Elsa's eagle sent several sharp feathers raining down at the Deep Ones. As she watched them be slashed to ribbons, she realized that they were not simply mindless animals. They displayed the ability to strategize, evidenced by the tunnel they had dug through the solid wall of ice. They had completely bypassed her army's formation and assaulted them from the rear, where they were more vulnerable.

With his vastly superior size and strength, Dagon ripped through Elsa's platoon as if they were made of fine glass. A single kick sent a grouping of them flying, while he grabbed another and crushed them to powder in his hand.

The queen held onto the back of her mount's neck tightly as she sent it into a dive. The bird flew downwards to Dagon at a high speed, ascending again just as its razor-like talons sliced through his eyes and across his face. Dagon roared, clutching at his eyes, blinded.

"Archers, target the large one! Fire when ready!"

From the cliffs overlooking the fjord, hundreds of ice arrows flew toward Dagon. Most of them found their mark, piercing his scaly flesh. The monster roared again, blindly flailing his arms about, indiscriminately hitting both friend and foe.

"_TEKELI-LI!_" the creature yelled.

Heeding their master's inhuman command, ten shoggoths rapidly appeared from out of the water. Defying gravity, they sped through the air. Four of them descended on the archers, smashing through them as they swept their tentacles around. The remaining six converged on Elsa. Reacting almost instantly, the queen snapped her fingers and they froze solid. She waved her hand, manipulating their frozen bodies to the bonfires that were still being tended to. Their remains dropped into the flames and started to burn.

"_Tekeli-li_."

As Elsa turned her eagle to face the remaining shoggoths, one of them whipped its tentacle at the snow bird's head. It grasped hold, and pulled hard, tearing it off.

The queen plummeted to the ground, her mount rendered useless. She conjured a soft, thick pile of snow, landing safely into it.

A cluster of Deep Ones snarled and charged at the queen, but were stopped in their tracks after she blasted them to bits with her magic. Rising to her feet, she looked up to the four shoggoths which still attacked the archers, and turned them to ice with a flick of her wrist. Like their comrades, they soon found themselves tossed into the fires, slowly burning down to a pile of ash.

Thinking on her feet, Elsa barked another order to her troops.

"Fire the artillery!"

The boom of cannon fire echoed around the battlefield as Dagon's skull was blown apart. Blue blood, pieces of bone, and mushy black brain matter splattered onto the ice. The high priest of the Deep Ones fell down with a loud crash, dead.

Seeing that their patriarch had fallen, the remaining fishmen screamed in rage and doubled their efforts, running headlong into the fray. The few that were still alive at the back of the phalanx were quickly cut down by the cold blades of Elsa's squadron, while the ones that rushed from the fore were stabbed through with spears, carved apart by swords, and bashed aside with shields.

With the water doing nothing to even slightly muffle it, a piercing shriek in the sea momentarily deafened Elsa. With her ears ringing, she looked to the shore and grimaced when she saw another immense monstrosity come up from the depths.

This beast was nearly twice the height of Dagon, and considerably wider. Across its chest were dozens of far more putrid, disgusting versions of the female orifice. Elongated, fleshy stalks extended from its shoulders and back, each one ending in a barbed tail. Its skin was a greyish brown, coated with slime, and its four black eyes were compounded, almost like that of an insect. Its dangerous maw was filled with hundreds of little gnashing teeth; the lamprey was the closest comparison one could make.

Once again, the queen recognized the beast from the Necronomicon: the high priestess, Mother Hydra, consort to the late Dagon.

Hydra's numerous rolls of blubber shook as she lumbered towards the waiting phalanx, the smaller Deep Ones following in her wake. She was rather quick for her size, pushing forward into the wave of Elsa's warriors. Their weapons easily penetrated Hydra's flesh, but it did nothing to slow her down; the thick layer of fat protected her from sustaining any real injuries.

Arrows sailed down from the surviving archers as the ground troops raised up their icy shields. Those who had lost their pikes in Hydra's skin drew their swords. In spite of their attempts to hold their position, the Deep Ones' matriarch plowed through their ranks. They could not hold them back.

"Clear the way! Let them through!"

The phalanx was finally broken as each soldier parted, moving to either side of the fjord and giving the Deep Ones a wide berth. The strange sea dwellers pressed on, ignoring the armada for their main target: Queen Elsa of Arendelle.

A wall of ice, twenty feet high, sprang up in front of the Deep Ones, separating them from their priestess. Many of them were skewered on the sharp ends of the icicles that jutted out from the wall, while the rest clambered over it just as Elsa's cavalry arrived.

The gargantuan snow warrior made its way down the mountain, its long legs carrying it to the fjord in mere seconds.

Elsa had not forgotten about the castle she had made with her powers more than a year before, nor had she forgotten about its size, or how it had the potential to be easily modified into a living weapon.

Arctic chains materialized over Hydra, binding the morbidly obese creature and holding it in place. Bile spewed from the gap in her face as she snarled at the queen.

The winter colossus stepped between its creator and the Deep Ones. Its huge axe grasped in both hands, it swung it down into Mother Hydra, splitting her in half and killing her instantly. Various innards spilled from her corpse, weird organs with functions one could only guess at.

Both of their leaders dead, and their numbers decimated, the Deep Ones turned tail and sprinted back towards the water.

"Attack! Don't leave any of them standing!" commanded Elsa. Her army sprang back into action, chasing after their retreating enemies. The bowmen resumed firing, the footsoldiers cut into fleeing fishmen, and the transformed winter palace stomped its feet down, leaving blue smears on the ice.

Suddenly, the Deep Ones stopped in their tracks. They all stood rooted to the spot, looking out at the ocean. They then knelt down on the frigid ground, their heads bowed as they started chanting.

"_Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn._"

Even as Elsa's soldiers brought their weapons down on the Deep Ones' heads, they remained where they were, prostrated before the open sea.

"Keep at it!"

The Deep Ones still did not move; they no longer seemed to care whether they lived or died. It was as though they had all been put into a trance, moved to veneration by an unseen force.

The snow golems raised their weapons once more. Right as they were about to swing them downwards, they paused.

The frost army let go of their blades, letting them clatter to the cold, hard ground. The bows fell from the archers' hands, dropping into the snow.

Elsa had just enough time to get out of the way of the giant, falling axe of her transfigured mountain fortress. She looked around, confused.

"What are you doing?! Attack!"

Her forces made no movement.

"Resume fighting! That's an order!"

There was still no response.

The snow queen could not figure out what had happened. Only a minute before, the land had been rife with conflict, but now the opposing sides had ceased their war. She was about to start blasting the Deep Ones herself, when she saw why they had all stopped in the first place.

On the horizon, a few dark, indefinable shapes began to emerge from the waves. The water around them violently splashed upwards, swirling around in a white vortex. However, as they continued to surface, it became apparent that the shapes were megalithic structures, built from some kind of stone. Walls, obelisks, columns, and stairways soon began to reveal themselves, rising up from the depths and blotting out the horizon.

All of Elsa's years of geometry studies were useless in making sense of what she was seeing. The various structures, hewn from exotic matter in the distant past, did not seem to follow any rules of mathematics. Lines which should have been forming acute angles seemed to instead stretch onwards, refusing to converge. Patterns in the walls appeared as both projections and indents, going outward and inward at the same time. The stairs and ramps that were wrapped around the landmass seemed to go nowhere.

Numerous reliefs and hieroglyphs were carved around the cyclopean towers, depicting beings and events which no human on Earth had ever witnessed. Elsa wasn't sure if they were spherical or rectangular, but she knew that if she spent another second looking at it, she would go mad.

Arendelle's monarch looked away, trying to focus. But all that came into her mind were the words of King Klaus, words which she had heard only days before.

_In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming._

A nasty realization found its way into Elsa's mind; she had just laid eyes on the corpse-city of R'lyeh, exposed once more after millennia of lying on the floor of the Pacific. And if R'lyeh had risen, if it was submerged no more, then that meant...

"_Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh fhtagn nafl._"

The Deep Ones raised their arms to the sky in anticipation.

Several walls of R'lyeh shifted, forming a vast doorway which revealed nothing but darkness beyond. Suddenly, from within, two enormous hands reached out, grasping the sides of the doorway. A wave of fear washed over Elsa as she saw, out of the corner of her eye, the thing which had slumbered within R'lyeh for countless eons, emerge: the Great Old One, Cthulhu.

The Deep Ones, Dagon, Hydra, even R'lyeh itself could not compare to the creature's terrifying visage; it must have been thousands of feet tall, the head alone easily dwarfing the North Mountain. Its bloated, ruined cathedral of a body defied all laws of nature. The tendrils and feelers that sprouted off the Old One's face seemed to have a mind of their own, writhing and twisting in the air. Its countless eyes glared out from its face, witnessing nothing yet seeing everything.

Had she looked at the entity directly, Elsa's mind would have shattered. As it was, she could barely maintain her sanity.

The colossal deity shuffled off of its city, stretching out its long, narrow wings and heading straight for Arendelle. The space around Cthulhu distorted and bent, folding inward on itself.

Shaking with terror, Elsa turned her back on the chilling sight. She had never seen anything so horrible in her life.

"Kill it! _KILL IT!_"

Mustering up every shred of determination, she called to the giant ice golem which still stood nearby. It picked up its axe and ran for Cthulhu. Influenced by Elsa's extreme emotion, ice spread further out across the fjord, extending past the cliffs and out to where the Great Old One was still advancing.

The golem did not even make it halfway across the path before melting into a puddle. The rest of the queen's army followed suit, dissolving where they stood. Elsa noticed even the frozen fjord starting to thaw as Cthulhu drew nearer.

Consumed by fear, Elsa ran back to the shoreline before the ice could dissipate completely. She did not stop when her feet touched solid ground. Instead she continued to sprint with all of her strength, heading as quickly as she could for Arendelle's royal palace.

Soon enough, the queen found herself at the castle gates. She wrenched them open and shut them behind her, sealing them with her abilities.

"And so you come running back."

The strange man, epaulets still gleaming as if they had been recently polished, stared back at Elsa. His cape fanned out behind him, and the jewels inlaid in his crown glowed with a weird light.

"I must say, even I didn't think you would last this long. But it's over."

The queen, panicking, stared back at him.

"What do you mean? What is all this? _Why is this happening_?!"

"I'm afraid this is The End, my dear. The candle has been snuffed out, the funeral bell has been rung, the flesh has rotted away."

The sky flashed, becoming a kaleidoscope of colors outside the spectrum; loathsome, disturbing colors that had no right to exist.

Elsa couldn't handle it. Her legs gave out and she fell to her knees. A sound, incomparable to anything she had heard before, seemed to echo through her consciousness, becoming an ambient noise.

She noticed a spot of red on the road beneath her, standing out amongst the grey bricks which made it up. She did not realize it had originated from her until the second drop of crimson fell.

Blood dripped from her ears, eyes, nose, and mouth, trickling down her chin and pooling into the crevices of each brick. Her heart racing, Elsa heard the secretive man's footsteps come closer.

At the edge of her vision, she saw what he had transformed into: a god of madness. The worm-like head, the oval-shaped mouth, the razor teeth, the skeletal torso and arms, the sharp taloned hands, the three spindly legs, it was all a perfect match to the illustration Elsa had made just a few nights previously.

"_Poor little ignorant wretch. Shuddering and shaking, an inconsequential speck. If only you knew what it was all really about._"

The thing's voice was raspy, harsh. It brought a single name into Elsa's head, the same name uttered by a group of ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago.

"Ny...Nyar...Nyarlat-"

She could not form the syllables properly.

The queen felt gnarled fingers grab her hair, wrenching her head upward, forcing her to stare up at the castle's outer wall.

"_Now, gaze upon knowledge, upon truth. In its purest form._"

Elsa breathed a silent prayer, desperately hoping that in spite of everything she had witnessed, a paternalistic God still watched over her. She shut her eyes, thinking of her sister. In her mind's eye, she and Anna built a snowman together for the last time.

A massive webbed hand scraped against the palace wall as it reached for Elsa.

* * *

><p>Howard's pen stopped, dotting the end of the sentence.<p>

"And...you never saw her again? Ever?"

"No, I'm afraid not."

Anna coughed, covering her hand with her mouth.

"I'm sorry dear, could you get me a bit of water? I would get it myself, but I'm not the young woman I used to be."

"Of course."

Howard got up from the chair and headed over to the small sink, turning the tap on and filling the nearby glass with clear liquid. He handed it to Anna.

"Thank you, sweetie."

She took a few sips and cleared her throat.

"You kids are lucky. When I was your age we didn't have nifty little things like this. Now, where was I?"

"We were discussing your sister," Howard replied.

"Ah, yes," sighed Anna, before she continued. "Lord, I miss her. It's been nearly eighty years since I last saw her. And my darling Kristoff passed only four years ago."

"I am sorry to hear that. It must be very hard on you."

Tears threatened to well up in Anna's eyes.

"It is."

She smiled, doing her best to maintain her usual self.

"But they're always in my thoughts and in my prayers. And I'm sure that one day I'll see them again."

Howard jotted down a quick note in the margin of his notebook.

"Your Majesty-"

"Oh, you don't have to call me that, dear. My son handles most of the royal duties now, an old biddy like me could barely be considered a queen anymore. Just call me Anna."

He forced a smile, his pen poised over the paper.

"...Anna...what became of the creature?"

Anna winced slightly at the mention of it. She nervously played with the end of a grey lock of hair.

"She killed it."

Howard narrowed his eyes in surprise.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I don't know how, but she managed. Summoned up a whole mountain range of icicles to kill it, she did."

'But...how did you dispose of the remains?"

"There weren't any. At least, not by the time we came back. Whatever was left of the thing had already evaporated into some kind of green mist. Not like it mattered much, it was still a lot of work getting the icicles taken down. And there were still thousands of those disgusting fish we had to get rid of. Those things smelled so bad, even the seagulls kept away from their filthy carcasses."

Howard removed his glasses and wiped them on the end of his jacket before putting them back on.

"And the city?"

"No sign of it. The thing must have sunk. Good riddance."

The young writer added another sentence to his notes.

"I just have one last question...what became of Elsa? If she destroyed the beast, how did she..."

Anna could not help herself. She buried her face in her hands and quietly sobbed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's quite all right. You're young, young people are full of curiosity."

Anna sniffed, carefully reaching into the pocket of her dress. She withdrew a small, folded note.

"This was all I found, lying behind the castle gates. I always keep it with me, as a reminder of her."

She handed it to Howard, who delicately opened it to reveal the neat cursive of Queen Elsa. Silently, he read from it.

_Anna. By the time you read this, I'm not going to be here anymore. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We were wrong. All of us, we were so wrong._

* * *

><p>Having said his goodbyes to Anna, Howard stood directly outside the harbor, waiting.<p>

The statue of Elsa that had been carved by Arendelle's finest sculpters served as a tribute to her. Trying to keep himself occupied, Howard read the statue plaque's inscription.

_Our beautiful queen, ruling with a just hand_

_Our beautiful queen, ruling over the winter land_

_Our beautiful queen, you saved us with your gift of snow_

_Our beautiful queen, we are sad that you had to go_

_Our beautiful queen, we are now apart_

_Our beautiful queen, you still remain in our heart_

_In loving memory of Queen Elsa of Arendelle_

"Hey, Mac! We're all ready, let's blow this pop stand!"

Upon hearing the skipper's voice, Howard peered back, seeing that the ship was prepared to leave. He soon found himself on board, watching Arendelle's main town. The sun was setting, and it cast an orange light over the fjord.

In Howard's eyes Arendelle grew smaller and smaller until the sun had set entirely. Small twinkling lights were still faintly visible in the night, but eventually they too faded away.

He made his way back to the small cabin which served as his quarters. It wasn't much, but it easily provided him enough space to write.

Howard removed two notebooks from his satchel; one was for field notes, one was for stories. He reviewed what he had gleaned from his visit to Arendelle.

_It's wrong. The stars weren't fully right. If they were, star-spawn would have been there._

Howard had everything he needed, but he was reluctant to begin the story. He rubbed his temples with his hand. He felt tired, but he was unable to sleep; the dreams had seen to that.

Although he felt compelled to record the various horrifying events he had heard of and seen, he knew that this story was one that he would have to embellish. The world could not handle the full truth.

Taking pen to paper, Howard began to write.

_The Call of Cthulhu_

_By H.P. Lovecraft_

_The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents._


End file.
